"The Arsenal of Democracy: Keeping China Deterred in an Age of Hard Choices" - by CWP alum Eyck Freymann
The margin of deterrence against China is rapidly shrinking, driven not by a failure of US technological innovation, but by the American and allied defense industrial base’s inability to field and sustain cutting-edge capabilities at scale, at speed, and under constant pressure. To counter China’s rapid conventional and nuclear buildup in scouting and strike capabilities, the United States must urgently expand its defense industrial base to revitalize its deterrence system. This article argues that defending vital US interests requires a comprehensive focus on systemic vulnerabilities that offer the fastest path to defeat, chiefly the brittleness of scouting (C4ISR) and logistics networks. The most time-sensitive industrial investments are in munitions, to close a widening missile gap; drones, to compete with China's mass production; and submarines, to address the profound crisis in the attack submarine force’s industrial capacity and sustainment. Stabilizing the balance does not require a doubling of the defense budget, but rather a coordinated, whole-of-system effort by the Pentagon and Congress to make hard choices, prioritize key industrial programs, and reform the allied acquisition process to produce what the evolving force requires. Achieving these goals requires a political mandate to discard the notion of “business as usual.”
https://tnsr.org/2025/12/the-arsenal-of-democracy-keeping-china-deterred-in-an-age-of-hard-choices/
Eyck Freymann is a Hoover Fellow at Stanford University and a Non-Resident Research Fellow at the U.S. Naval War College, China Maritime Studies Institute.
He works on strategies to preserve peace and protect U.S. interests and values in an era of systemic competition with China. He is the author of several books, including The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry, and Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices, with Harry Halem, and One Belt One Road: Chinese Power Meets the World. His scholarly work has appeared in The China Quarterly and is forthcoming in International Security.
Dr. Freymann advises policymakers in the United States and allied countries. He comments on national security issues of bipartisan concern in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, The Economist, War on the Rocks, The Wire China, and The Atlantic, among other venues.
Before Hoover, Dr. Freymann held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and Columbia. He holds a doctorate from Oxford, masters degrees from Cambridge and Harvard, and a bachelors from Harvard, all in history and China studies.
Photo Credit: https://tnsr.org/2025/12/the-arsenal-of-democracy-keeping-china-deterred-in-an-age-of-hard-choices/
